Norfolk group working on creating first floating "amphibious house" on East Coast

Equipped with the novel — if seemingly surreal — approach to sea level rise, Paul Rice connected with a Hampton Roads-based architect and other environmentalists to try to build the East Coast's first amphibious home.

A unique, buoyant foundation and two guiding poles on each side would allow the structure to rise and fall with the water, climbing when a storm floods a neighborhood and eventually going back down after it recedes.

They say that kind of innovative design would create a boom of construction jobs in the coming years, protect property and vital revenue sources for local governments, and preserve neighborhoods throughout the region.

The goal "is to create a new type of development that is more resilient," said Willie Parks, an architect on the project. "I think that this kind of classification — if we can get the code to work with us — will really change how development is done on the coast."

Shell’s recent success in the US Gulf of Mexico includes its deepwater Dover discovery on Mississippi Canyon 612, reported last year, near its Appomattox platform. The well was drilled by the Deepwater Poseidon ultra-deepwater drillship. Sources: Shell, Transocean.

In lieu of the traditional shovel groundbreaking, Miami City Commission chair Ken Russell, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and Miami city manager Emilio T. Gonzalez (pictured l-r) perform the ceremonial water toss to mark the start of the first Miami Forever Bond project tackling flooding and sea-level rise. (Photo by City of Miami Office of Communications)